Week 11 - Sweet Moments

I haven't been too successful at writing weekly posts, but I've been a little distracted by the JaJo Wedding this past weekend.

I have been very anxious about how to share the news about the pregnancy with Dave's parents.  I *knew* it had to be done in person, and I wanted to do it with all of his family there.  However, in the midst of JaJo's wedding, I didn't want to take anything away from their day.  So we waited.  We arrived in Florida on Thursday night and waited until Sunday morning to share the news.  It was a difficult secret to keep, and the anxiety about keeping quiet for so long manifested itself into my dreams.  Friday and Saturday nights, I slept poorly, as I kept having "visions" of his mom being angry with us--with me--for keeping this news from them for so long.  I woke with worry, and it took about an hour to convince myself to convince myself that "This is happy news, Mell.  She is not going to be upset."  Yeah, if only my anxiety believed me!

On Sunday morning, I just couldn't wait any longer and decided that it was going to be too hard to get everyone (parents and siblings) together before the guests arrived, so we decided to tell his parents first.  Dave spoke to his parents and asked if we could talk to them privately before the brunch.  It was hectic getting everything ready for the 100 guests that were expected at 11:00, so she asked if we could talk afterwards--around 4:00.  Thankfully, Dave (probably being anxious himself) asked if we could do it sooner, so we met at 10:30.

While his mom and I waited upstairs for his dad, she told me that she was worried about what was going on since Dave was so serious when he asked.  I think she expected a "bomb" (of bad news) that usually follows such a serious request.  Anyway, when we were all there, I simply handed them the card that we had prepared and said, "We got something for you."

After his mom read the front of the card, her first words were "Oh my god!" There was disbelief, shock, and a little bit of excitement in her voice.  This is what she saw when she looked at the card:

On the inside of the card, I attached a Post-It note with "YOU!!! ...sometime around 11/16/13" written on it.  I don't really remember if she read the rest of the card or not because we were crying and hugging and letting the reality of the news sink in.

Here is what the inside of the card looked like (when opened all the way):

Tucked inside the card were copies of the ultrasound pictures (from Week 8).  The next things I remember being said were "Mike, we're going to be grandparents!" and "Wow!  What a weekend!"

We took some pictures after that and talked about what they both wanted to be called.  Will it be "Grandma and Grandpa" or "Grammy and Papi"?  There is still time to decide, but the speculation was (and is) a fun conversation.

It was such a happy moment, and the memory makes me smile and cry just a little.  I wish--WISH I had set up a camera to record the moment, but it would have been really conspicuous to do so right in front of her.  And there really wasn't a good place to stash a camera and still be able to see their faces.

Unsurprisingly, they wanted to share the news with everyone, but we wanted to tell Dave's siblings (and their spouses) first.

About an hour later, after the newlyweds arrived at the Villa, we asked Liz, Donna, Marc, Jake, and Jo to meet us upstairs at 11:30.  Once we were all there, his parents took a picture of all of us together, and then Dave and I said we had another picture for them, and I held up one of the original ultrasound pictures for them all to see.  And I remember Donna saying, "I knew it!"

[The pictures of this will be posted soon...as soon as I have them.]

The news spread like wildfire.  I was surprised at how quickly everyone heard because I didn't even get all the way down the stairs before the "Congratulations!" began.

Jacob told me later that day that when we asked him and Jo to meet us upstairs, he worried what other wedding surprises were in store for them that would make him cry.  The news did make him cry, but it wasn't wedding-related.

It was a fun, joyous day!